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The city residents will once again start getting BRTS bus facility before the corporation elections. It has been decided to restart the BRTS buses which were closed for 14 months. Cabinet Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal will flag off the bus from the Gateway to India on December 6 at around 10.15 am. For a few days, 8 buses will run only on route number 201 from Gateway to India to Golden Gate.
At present the buses will run free for 3 weeks i.e. no fare will be charged. This will benefit 5-6 thousand people. Defects in the corridor due to closure of buses for 14 months are being rectified by the Corporation. For BRTS, 56 stations were prepared on 8 routes, whose length was 46 km, in different parts of the city. Around 84 buses landed on the route and people started taking advantage of them. Its ticket was Rs 5 per ride which was later reduced to Rs 10. But from time to time this project became a victim of politics, due to which it reached the verge of closure several times. On July 5, 2023, the buses stopped completely. When the Congress government came in 2017, it was closed.
However, it was restarted on 27 January 2019. Corporation Commissioner Gulpreet Singh Aulakh and officers conducted the trial of 5 buses on Thursday. The buses will complete trials on different routes and around 60 buses will start running in 30 days. Gradually all 93 buses will be seen running on the roads. There are preparations to run buses on all routes. Corporation Commissioner Gulpreet Singh Aulakh said that the trial conducted on Thursday was completely successful. The work which was already to be done in the BRTS route by the Corporation has already been completed.
He said that the cleanliness of this route is also being done daily. Due to the closure of buses, about 700 employees became unemployed. These included about 180 drivers and 200 conductors. At present, the employees will get employment by running the buses again. Let us tell you that the Akali government had started the Rapid Transit System (BRTS) project on 15 December 2016 at a cost of Rs 650 crore. For traveling by BRTS, passengers have to spend Rs 10, while for private vehicles it has to cost three times more, up to Rs 30. About 80 thousand people used to travel daily. Traffic was significantly affected due to the closure of BRTS buses. Traffic problems had increased everywhere.